Dear Anita: If you want to find out more about the pros and cons of vaccines, I suggest the website Holisticat.com, which, as its name suggests is dedicated to exploring alternative and holistic approaches to cat care and feeding. I was able to find some very helpful info on that site regarding vaccines. There is also info available about an alternative to vaccines, homeopathic nosodes, which have been discussed on this site in the past, I believe, if you check the archives. I do not know or understand that much about them but there are some members of Holisticat who are better versed in that regard. Another site, Wellpet.com, also has much info available and I am sure there are other websites, as well.
Most traditional vets are still recommending the yearly booster protocol and vaccinating for everything imaginable without considering the possible ill effects this may have, long-term, on an animal's immune system. Some more enlightened traditional vets are now recommending a more realistic 3-4 year booster protocol, but even that is seen as excessive by most holistic and alternative vets. After doing some research, I no longer give any of my critters yearly boosters and no vaccines at all to my immuno-compromised kittys. Feeding the best possible and most natural diet possible (70% of immune function is GI-related, i.e. that is how the appropriate nutrients get distributed and absorbed into the bloodstream) with supplements to boost the immune system and minimizing contact with possible pathogens seems to make more sense than continually assaulting the immune system year after year with vaccines, often for illnesses which animals have little risk of being exposed to. I think the same could be said about we humans, as well. There are many who believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and the increasing incidence of autism. The use of multi-valent or combo vaccines is also not a logical practice if you stop to think about it. It is very convenient for us to only have to give a single vaccine, but that is not necessarily a good approach to take by overwhelming the immune system and asking it to build multiple antibodies to various pathogens simultaneously. The is not how the immune system is typically stimulated by nature but rather it responds to one pathogen at a time. An individual with an inherently very strong immune system may suffer little or no ill effects outwardly, but the increasing incidence in domestic pets of allergies and auto-immune disorders and degenerative diseases over time must be correlated to something in the way we feed and care for our pets. There are well-documented cases of bad, even fatal, reactions to vaccines, but don't know if anyone has ever put into statistics how likely such ill-effects are to occur. Kittens, of course, are most at risk of becoming fatally infected with the viruses for which the 3-way vaccine is supposed to provide immunity. Multiple vaccines are given to kittens initially because it is not really known how long any antibodies inherited from their mom will protect kittens and when their own immune function begins to peak. The well-known holistic/nomeopathic vet, Dr. Hamilton, believes that one well-timed vaccine at about 10-12 weeks of age is likely to provide life-long immunity for most cats. Of those 3 viruses, panleukopenia is the most life-threatening and, typically, very young kittens who are too young to be vaccinated are most at risk. The respiratory viruses rhinotrachaeitis and calicivirus are rarely fatal and usually only with very young kittens who do not receive necessary treatment with readily available antibiotics. Panleukopenia is probably the most easily-transmitted and life-threateing of the viruses for which we vaccinate our cats. It is an airborne virus and can be picked up on shoes and carried into your home that way. It is a hardy virus and not easily erradicated from surfaces, except with bleach, so you don't want it to get in carpeting or other porous surfaces. Given the factor of "viral load" it can wreak great havoc in shelters or catteries if it becomes established, as it is easily spread. Typically there is a high mortality rate. Fortunately, the vaccine is considered to be quite effective and relatively safe, compared to some other vaccines. If there is one virus I would vaccinate for, it would be panleukopenia. Dr. Hamilton recommends that if you feel you MUST vaccinate, that you use a single vaccine for panleukopenia and the intra-nasal vaccine for rhino and calici virus. He does not recommend the 4th component of traditional vaccines for chlamydia and feel is is unnecessary for most cats. He considers rabies and FeLV vaccines to be high risk and the FIV and FIP vaccines of questionable effectiveness. For those who must vaccinate for rabies due to legal requirements as for licensing, he believes a single dose provides adequate immunity for the life of the animal and that the vaccine should not be given any more often than is absolutely necessary. Dr.Hamilton also recommends giving the homeopathic remedy Thuja after vaccinating to ward off bad reactions. I know a holistic vet locally, Dr. J. Lauren DeRock, who recommends giving transfer factors for 3-4 days prior to vaccinating and she said she has not experienced any bad reactions to vaccines since she started using this protocol. She is the vet who recommended to me a product called Animal Stress Pack (from 4Life Products which contains transfer factors, electrolytes and some other immune-boosting ingredients, I believe) that I got to give to a friend's horse that was not recovering well after colic (due to oleander poisoning) surgery. After several doses the horse finally turned the corner and began to recover and the vet hospital said she was only the second horse they had been able to save from that type of poisoning. I used it, and also straight transfer factors, with a 10 week old kitten who came down with panleukopenia and was given virtually no chance for recovery if I did not hospitalize her. Miraculously, she recovered with home care, only to be lost at 8 mos. due to FeLV-related nonregenerative anemia. The transfer factors did not benefit her at that point...nothing did. Most of the immuno-supportive supplements seem most effective in helping to maintain immune function, but once an FeLV+ kitty starts to crash it is usually an indication that the immune system is failing and there really doesn't seem to be anything that will halt the process. Of course I did not know that Purrsia was FeLV+ until she crashed. Evidently the panleukopenia severely compromised her immune system and she was exposed over several months to a playmate who was unknowingly postive. I often wonder if I had kept her on immunno-supportive supplements after her recovery if there might have been a different outcome. I'll never know, and my heart will always have a very big hole in it. I'd never had to deal with FeLV before...losing Purrsia and then her playmate, Angel Eyes, was a tragic, trial-by-fire education for me. I've learned a lot over the past year and a half and am still learning...I hope I can somehow learn enough to even the odds for the three positive kittys that have come to be in my care since I lost Angel. The members on this list have been so supportive and so willing to share their own knowledge and experiences, what has and hasn't worked for their kittys. I have learned far more from this talklist and other websites than I have from any vet I've consulted. I hope you will be prompted to do some research on your own and be able to decide what you think is the best vaccine regimen for your kitty and what you can feel comfortable with as a pet guardian. Traditional western vets do not have all the answers any more than human doctors do, even if modern medicine with all its technology has so much to offer us. I look forward to the day when "integrative medicine" that draws from both western and eastern philososphies and incorporates alternative approaches to healing in a holistic fashion becomes mainstream. I do hope I will live to see it happening. Sally in San Jose
